Fig 1.
Map of the Mediterranean showing the investigated regions of the NW Mediterranean, CE Adriatic and N Aegean.
Inset figures a—d present localities (in bold). Crosses mark the study sites of the yellow gorgonian Eunicella cavolini.
Table 1.
Characteristics of studied sites.
Fig 2.
Upper depth distribution limits for the investigated Eunicella cavolini populations along a longitudinal gradient.
Table 2.
Population characteristics of Eunicella cavolini per region, locality and site.
Fig 3.
Mean density (colonies per m2) of Eunicella cavolini populations, tabulated by locality.
Whisker span indicates standard deviation. Colors denote geographic regions.
Table 3.
Summary of PERMANOVA results for Eunicella cavolini population density.
Table 4.
Summary of PERMANOVA pairwise comparisons for Eunicella cavolini population density among regions.
Fig 4.
Mean height of Eunicella cavolini colonies per locality.
Whisker span indicates standard deviation. Colors denote geographic regions.
Table 5.
Summary of PERMANOVA results for Eunicella cavolini colony height.
Fig 5.
Height frequency distribution of Eunicella cavolini populations per site, grouped by locality (in bold) and region (different colors).
Italics indicate site name, numbers in parentheses denote sampling depth range, and (N) corresponds to the number of colonies used.
Fig 6.
Non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot of Eunicella cavolini population structure per site.
Different markers indicate different regions. Black dotted lines signify clusters formed at Euclidean distance equal to 4. The superimposed red lines denote the Euclidean distance coefficients used, after data normalization: mean height, max height, H% (proportion of height classes ≤20 cm and >30 cm), height skewness, height kurtosis, density, and upper depth distribution.
Table 6.
Summary data on injury characteristics of Eunicella cavolini colonies per site.
Fig 7.
Colonies of the yellow gorgonian Eunicella cavolini exposed to different orientations and disturbances.
a) in a large overhang; b) on open rock; c) under stress by fishing gear and mucilagenous algae, d) heavily overgrown during a mass mortality event. Photos a and b are courtesy of Thanos Dalianis and Panagiotis Papadelis, respectively.